WTBB 16 - A bit of LOCA, platooning and other stuff

So I've kind of been neglecting this thing - real life has been interfering with my gaming time, so I've not been able to tank all that much, let alone blog about it. We also have been hard at work working on the Clan's website and forum - it is going to be awesome. Quite excited to get all of it up and running.

Other clans are starting to arrive to the game as well. Some aren't a threat, some will be. And that will just make it all the more fun later on. One of those clans is led by someone who's known to have quite a temper - up to rage-quitting after a battle gone wrong horribly. And we see them as our main competition. They have some excellent players in their clan (that we know of), some of which we would have loved in ours. And some of which who switched and are now in our Clan instead of theirs. Not to mention the fact that they have asked about half our Clan to be a part of their clan, which, in my opinion, is quite funny.

Our Clan is so big though. I know some of our members worry about how that will go when we actually get clan wars - but the solution is easy to find. We'll just create a bunch of sub-clans, so we can enter with more than one team. We could switch around members all the time, form the best teams. Because the best players together don't necessarily form the best teams - you need members that work well together more than members whose stats are awesome. You can create well balanced awesome teams then. And that will make clan wars incredibly interesting. And of course the in-clan competitions we will be having to compete between ourselves.

I have no illusions - I don't know if I'll be a good enough player to be on any of those teams. But if not, I can always root for them on the sidelines and be amazed at the awesome results they will get. And who knows, I may have had another growth spurt in understanding the game by then, so I might be able to compete after all. We'll see.

In the mean time, I've been getting to know a few new and not so new members of the clan. This morning, I played with Pug. Pug is an excellent player, who's played with a bunch of people from the Clan before becoming a member. I had seen enough results with him in there to know he's a good player. And this morning I experienced it myself. I'm still learning his play-style, and I have a feeling he has some difficulties with mine too, as we don't yet feel where we need to be in order to work best with the other. But that will come in time, and it definitely didn't mean we didn't have fun.

We had some excellent games, and a lot of noob teams. It is very frustrating, when you manage to do 7k or more damage together, and you still lose because your team doesn't manage to kill a single tank, and they just vanish around you. That's the way of the game right now though. And once me and Pug get a proper feel for each other's tanks and tank-style, I'm pretty sure we'll be pwning them all, no matter what teams we get.

The second one I've been playing with that I haven't played with before is Lyrebird. Now, there's a bit of an explanation that comes with that name. Where Pug choose his own name, Lyrebird asked me to give him one. I only wanted to give him one after I had tanked with him though, because I usually base nicknames on people's playstyle. The lyrebird is a very funny bird that, aside from being quite pretty, manages to copy any and all sounds it hears. David Attenborough had it in one of his documentaries and every time I see it it still makes me giggle. But, it is a name that fits Lyrebird quite well.

Lyrebird is a sweet guy, one of the youngsters in the Clan. He is proud of his service record, but when he shows his plumage, he tends to hold back right after showing off, as if he thinks we won't be proud of him if he shows off. He's incredibly enthusiastic, both for the Clan, new players and the battles he drives. It's quite a delight to see and witness. But that's not all why he fits the Lyrebird.

When we started to tank, he kept picking the same tank as I did. This sometimes worked, but most often, driving the same tank doesn't work that well in a match. He also tended to copy my playing style, which led to a few epic games, but when you play the same tanks and the same style, you often can't support each other well. Once I told him he didn't have to drive the same tank I did and he drove something other than what I was driving, things went a lot better. He composed his own song to sing, and I sung one that matched, so overall we did great (if we neglect the matches with utter noob teams).

But I had the best time ever with Tiger. I wasn't sure what to call him at first, but I think Tiger fits best. He can be such a grumpy cat at times. He has a tendency to shout at the entire team when he dies - whether or not it was their fault he died or not, and whether or not that team loses or not after he's dead. Only, he doesn't just call them names, he threatens them and their families too. It's actually earned him a ban before. It made me hesitant to play with him, to be honest. But in the end, I gave in to it, because in the Clan-chat, he actually seems like quite a nice guy, if a bit cocky at times.

His English isn't perfect, but that doesn't have to be a problem when platooning, and though he apparently loses match after match when platooning with some people, there are some players in the Clan he has epic win-streaks with. And I have to admit I was kind of curious which category I would fall under. I was very glad I did.

It was the greatest streak I've ever known. Of the around forty matches we must have played in one afternoon, we only lost three. It was completely epic. I didn't always survive, and neither did he, but everything just worked really well. I did, of course, see some of the name-calling he's almost famous for, but he was never impolite to me, even if I noobed too. And that's kind of given me a different perspective regarding him. As little respect as he has for the team, he has a level of it for me, at least.

I do hope he'll eventually learn not to threaten them, though. I'd hate for him to get another ban. He always calls me bro, and that makes me laugh every time. I've teased him about that, and reminded him that I'm female. So now, when he calls me 'bro', he clarifies himself by explaining that he calls me that because it's short for 'brothers in arms'. It doesn't make it gender-correct, but it's kind of cute, I think. Either way, I'm very much looking forwards to the next time he and I can drive together. Hopefully we'll get the same kind of streak then.

Of course, it's not all roses and sunshine - I am being reminded of why I quit mass multiplayer online games all together from time to time. Despite my original hair colour being (dark) blonde, I'm not stupid. One plus one isn't three, and I know for a fact that I've been lied to on several occasions by several members of the Clan (about very different things, mind you). And frankly, that both sucks and hurts, no matter the reason for it.

I find that I'm having some difficulty letting it go. On one side, I can accept it, and accept that, okay, they don't want that level of friendship. That's their choice, even if I don't like it. And with them choosing that, I'll give them the same shallow form of contact in turn and everything will be peaches and cream.

But on the other side, I find I regret not being able to have a deeper level of friendship than a shallow one. I regret having to question what I'm being told. The cynic in me isn't very surprised that this happened, but that doesn't make me less uncomfortable with it. Back in the day, lies and lack of honesty and respect were the main reason I quit mass multiplayer online games all together. As long as I enjoy the game, and I enjoy the contact I have with the other members, shallow or not, then I don't want to do that though. So for the sake of that, I'm trying hard to let it go, and accept the fact that things will be shallow. Whether or not I will be able to really do so, remains to be seen.